The Internal Revenue Service may never be the government’s most popular agency, but it could have been the most efficient. 

In 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which invested $80 billion to fix the IRS. In 2023, then-IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel submitted a 200-page modernization plan to Congress, promising a major overhaul of the agency’s processes and technology. Among these reforms was Direct File, which debuted in 2024. The new free filing service won high marks from government auditors and was popular with taxpayers. Thousands of new staff also came on board to help taxpayers. 

Then came Trump. And DOGE. 

Overnight, says Werfel, all of the work to improve the IRS “not only stopped, but it reversed.” Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” canceled the funding appropriated by Congress, fired thousands of workers, and tossed out Werfel’s modernization plan. The Inspector General for Tax Administration reports that the agency lost 31,000 workersbetween January 2025 and January 2026. 

Today, signs of severe dysfunction abound: 

• Tax time was a mess for millions of filers. National Taxpayer Advocate’s mid-year report to Congress called this year’s tax season “frustrating, confusing, and financially disruptive” for many taxpayers. Many filers experienced delays in getting refunds; millions more saw delays in getting help. Some filers never managed to contact a human service rep.
• No one’s in charge. The IRS has not had a Senate-confirmed commissioner since President Donald Trump firedBilly Long last year, two months into his tenure. Trump appointed Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignanoas the agency’s “CEO,” which Senate Democrats decried as a “fake job” designed to circumvent Congressional oversight. Numerous top positions remain vacant.
• ICE has had access to IRS data—despite lacking the legal authority. The IRS has handed over nearly 47,000 addresses to immigration authorities, according to a June report from the Inspector General for Tax Administration. Under Section 6103 of the tax code, “Returns and return information shall be confidential… except as authorized” by statute.
• Billionaire tax cheats are breathing easier. The decimation of IRS staff has meant a dramatic decline in audits, especially for wealthier taxpayers. In particular, the “Global High Wealth Unit”—which keeps an eye on billionaires—lost 38 percent of its staff, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. (Trump, himself, don’t forget, negotiated lifetime immunity from audit for himself and his family as part of his “weaponization” lawsuit against the federal government.)

Even if you’re not a fan of the IRS (or of paying taxes), these problems matter, Werfel says. “There’s not an industrialized nation in the world that can exist and flourish if the tax system is chaotic,” he said. “It’s like an engine part under the hood. You don’t have to celebrate it, but it needs to work.”

I hope you’ll watch my interview with Werfel in this week’s Monthly podcast (you can see a preview on our Substack here)—not just to learn more about what’s happened to the IRS but to hear from a seasoned, skilled government leader with genuine dedication to the public interest. 

People like Werfel are what the federal government desperately needs—but they’ve been ruthlessly purged by the Trump administration and supplanted by cranks, incompetents, and loyalist toadies. Look no further than Fox News host Pete Hegseth, the cosplaying “Secretary of War”; or the acting Director of National Intelligence, Bill Pulte, who’s ascended to one of the nation’s most important and sensitive positions with no intelligence experience at all. 

If you listen to Werfel, you’ll understand what government could and should be. You will come away inspired—and angered by what we have lost. 

Don’t miss at the Monthly…

Maine takeaways. If you’re a regular reader of the Monthly, you’ll know that we haven’t exactly been Graham Platner fans. Still, it gives us no joy to feel vindicated over Platner’s implosion last week over rape allegations—Democrats are now scrambling to find a viable candidate, making a must-win race even more challenging. Democrats can, however, learn some valuable lessons from this debacle:

• “Do not fetishize working-class voters,” writes Executive Editor-Digital Matt Cooper. “The idea that nominating a working-class Democrat would sway working-class voters was always reductionist and absurd.” 
• Read internal polling with a skeptical eye, warns Politics Editor Bill Scher. “Platner’s polling network didn’t manufacture Platner’s support out of thin air. … But pumping out favorable polls at a sensitive phase of the campaign … warped perceptions about Platner’s political durability and made it harder for skeptics to warn about the possibility of bigger scandalous shoes dropping.”

In a bonus column, Matt also offers advice on what Platner could have and should have said when he dropped his candidacy (i.e., not, as EMILY’s List put it, “11 minutes and zero accountability”). Bill also writes that dropping Platner was the only way the Democratic Party could “retain any credibility as the party of women’s rights and the party that adheres to the rule of law.” Read here and here. 

How to Save Democracy. We’re only four months away from the midterms, and anxiety is rising over the threat of election interference by the Trump administration. Legal Affairs Editor Garrett Epps writes that these concerns are justifiable—but that citizens also have plenty of reason for hope. Pro-democracy groups are ready, he finds, and the administration will likely falter from its own incompetence. And every citizen has the power to act in their own defense of democracy: “The first and most important thing for citizens to do… is to vote.” Read here. 

Plus…

• Jonathan Alter finds things to celebrate on America’s 250th, despite the glum national mood: Americans are healthier, safer, and enjoy a better standard of living than they did at our bicentennial. 
• Law professor Rodger Citron reviews a new biography of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to learn why the jurist seems so angry. 
• merrill goozner.com reacts to the Trump Administration’s falsehood-filled attack on the Smithsonian. 
• James Zirin tears apart Trump’s lame argument that the proposed “triumphal arch” somehow fulfills Congress’s aesthetic vision for D.C. 

Coda (More on saving democracy…) 

NOTUS reports that the Trump administration is threatening to prosecute any local election official who “facilitates noncitizens in receiving and casting ballots.” It’s yet another effort to interfere in state election processes (in addition to those that Garrett documents above). It’s also based on two dangerously false premises—that noncitizen voting is an issue, and that election officers are complicit. 

Here’s the truth: 

• Noncitizen voting is nonexistent. Even the Heritage Foundation can’t make a credible case that noncitizens vote. Moreover, it’s already illegal. 
• Local election officers are civically minded volunteers. Any U.S. citizen can volunteer to be a poll worker, and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission in fact encourages Americans to sign up and help their neighbors exercise the right of franchise. 

I’ve been an election officer in four elections now, and it’s been an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s also instilled enormous admiration in the processes that local leaders have developed to ensure election security. 

In Fairfax County, Virginia, where I’ve worked, election officers must undergo periodic training and work in bipartisan teams. All processes are meticulously laid out in detailed instructions, and there are redundant mechanisms for security. For instance, all of us witness the voting machines being unsealed, sign our names to various certifications, and doublecheck the tallies of paper ballots against the machine count throughout the day. We also require 100 percent ID checks against an electronic database—it is literally impossible for an unauthorized person to vote. These processes moreover aren’t unique to Fairfax County—here’s a useful explainer from the Bipartisan Policy Center on how all states ensure election security. 

I strongly encourage you to volunteer at the polls, see democracy at work, and come away with your trust renewed. Then spread the word about the integrity of the process. Don’t let the Trump administration’s lies take hold. 

P.S. Here’s one more reason citizens need to step up to defend democracy. Trump fired all of the members of the bipartisan Election Assistance Commission this week as part of his effort to hijack this fall’s elections. State election officials condemned the move as “irresponsible and dangerous.”

Thanks as always for reading this newsletter, and please subscribe, like, and share. 

Have a great week!

Anne Kim, Senior Editor